Don't let the bed bugs bite

I just got back from India. Flight was great, it's the first time I've flown business class - the seats can lay almost flat so sleeping was not a problem. I also got to relax in the "special invite only" lounge where they had free beer, wine, soda, juices, etc, plus snacks to eat.



I arrived in Hyderabad, India at 2am in their new airport - it has only been open for a week. Their previous airport was in the middle of the city, and supposedly was very dirty and rundown.



The hotel I stayed at, Novotel, was very clean and nice - it was built about a year ago. Unfortunately some previous visitor left behind bed bugs. The critters nibbled on me that first night, after that I slept with the light on for discouragement.

The Microsoft buildings are located in Hitech City (a suburb of Hyderabad). This city hosts the IT big boys of India, like Infosys, Wipro, etc. We took a break during work to play a friendly game of Cricket, which reminded me somewhat of baseball.

I also took a couple of touristy jaunts to check out some of the historical buildings, including Golkonda fort. This ruined city was once the location where diamonds were mined, cut and sold, including famous stones like the Hope Diamond.





Some pictures I took at the top of Charminar. You can see the yellow cabs below, India is very populated and motorcycles with 3-4 people holding on were not uncommon. It was also normal to see cows, goats, chickens, freely roaming the streets same as the vehicles.







What struck me most about the landscape, besides the abundance of poor people, were the giant rocks everywhere. People would often paint advertising signs on them, a natural billboard.